1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of content delivery over a network. More specifically, the present invention is in one exemplary aspect directed to analyzing user-, device-, or premises-specific information in order to determine the appropriate advertising or promotional content to be delivered over the network.
2. Description of Related Technology
In cable television networks, advertisements are usually statically interspersed within a given broadcasted program. In this manner, every CPE in a local service area which is currently tuned to the same program channel will receive the same advertisements at approximately the same time and in the same order.
In content-based networks such as cable television networks, advertisements (including without limitation promotions, commercials, and short segments) that are viewed by subscribers can be controlled in several ways. Generally, two categories or subdivisions of these techniques exist: (i) national- or high-level insertion, and (ii) local- or low-level insertion.
Under national level insertion, national networks (such as NBC, ABC, etc.) are responsible for determining the advertisements or promotions that are resident in a given program stream. The pre-configured stream is delivered to the network operator (e.g., MSO), and the MSO merely then delivers the stream (content and advertisements) to the relevant subscribers over their network.
Under local-level insertion, the MSO (and even broadcast affiliates) can insert locally-generated advertisements or commercials and other such segments into remotely distributed regional programs before they are delivered to the network subscribers.
Advertisement time is typically priced based upon an associated program's popularity (and hence its time slot). Such prices are commonly based on Nielsen Television Ratings, which are ratings determined by measuring of the number of unique viewers or households tuned to a television program at any one particular time.
The Nielsen system has also recently been expanded from only program content to advertising (i.e., Nielsen ratings may be provided for advertisements themselves).
Nielsen Television Ratings are gathered in one of two ways. One method involves asking viewers of various demographics to keep a written record of the television shows they watch throughout the day and evening. Another method involves using “Set Meters,” which are small devices connected to televisions in selected homes. These devices electronically gather the viewing habits of the home and transmit the information nightly to Nielsen over a connected phone line.
There are several disadvantages with employing a Nielsen-like approach to pricing statically interspersed cable advertisements. The first is that the sample of viewers selected may not be fairly representative of the population of cable viewers as a whole. For example, in a cable network comprising four million cable viewers, a sample of any 100,000 viewers may exhibit different average viewing habits than the averages associated with the other 3,900,000 cable viewers who are not in the sample.
A second disadvantage is that static delivery makes it difficult to perfectly target an audience known to be in the market. For example, suppose that the ideal target for a sports car advertisement is the set of all consumers who like and would be interested in buying sports cars. If all that is known from Nielsen data is that 10% of the sample group has watched the auto-racing channel for over three hours in the last month, this may not perfectly correlate with set of consumers who like sports cars. This may be the case, for example, if there are some consumers who are in the market for sports cars but who never watch the auto racing channel, or if there are some viewers of the auto racing channel who have no interest in buying or owning sports cars. As such, patterns based on viewership data often imprecisely identify the desired audience.
The aforementioned prior art “Nielsen” approach is also program-specific, and this is a problem from several aspects. First, the efficacy of the advertising is tied to the accuracy of the demographic model for that particular program; i.e., that most 18-30 year old females in fact do actually watch American Idol. As a limiting case, if the demographic model used had 0% correlation with actual behavior, then advertising used based on that demographic model would have a correspondingly low (or no) effect on the target demographic (e.g., 18-30 year old females), since none of them would be watching American Idol when the advertising was broadcast. Stated simply, the prior art program-coupled approach is only as good as the underlying demographic correlation model.
Also, the aforementioned demographic model is often limited to one particular program. Hence, the 18-30 year old females discussed above may tune in dutifully to American Idol each broadcast (e.g., Monday at 8:00 pm), but may not have any interest in watching the program immediately preceding or following American Idol, and hence may tune away (or delay tuning to that channel until the start of American Idol). The demographic model for that particular program accordingly may have little or no correlation to periods (programs) before or after it, and thus a new demographic model (which may cater to a heterogeneous demographic from the first, e.g., 40-65 year-old males) would be needed. This has the effect of, inter alia, artificially segmenting or imposing boundaries on the continuity of advertising or promotions; i.e., a given “theme” or demographic cannot be reliably targeted significantly beyond the program boundaries unless the same demographic or theme continues in the programming itself. The network operator, network, or other entity must effectively tailor advertisements/promotions on a per-program basis in some cases if their advertising/promotion is to have maximum efficacy.
A number of other different approaches have been described in the prior art which attempt to facilitate effective targeted advertising or promotional content delivery. For example, United States Patent Application Publication No. 20070113243 to Brey published May 17, 2007 entitled “Targeted advertising system and method” discloses a targeted advertising system comprising an interface unit configured to receive broadcast transmissions, a primary broadcast stream for broadcast programming, a secondary broadcast stream for targeted advertising content, and a storage device for storing the targeted advertising content. The method comprises presenting a targeted advertising content to a user including receiving a primary broadcast stream, receiving a secondary broadcast stream, storing a portion of the secondary broadcast stream in a storage device, and presenting a targeted advertising stream to the user, which may be selected based on a user parameter.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20070089127 to Flickinger et al. published Apr. 19, 2007 entitled “Advertisement Filtering and Storage for Targeted Advertisement Systems” discloses an advertisement storage and filtering system for selectively identifying targeted advertisements to be stored in the memory of the STB. This storing of the selected advertisements can be accomplished in a number of ways. In one embodiment, the advertisements, in real-time and as they are received at the STB, are processed by the STB and only those advertisements with the appropriate characteristics are stored on the hard drive. This may require some buffering of the advertisements in the STB memory as the STB processes and determines whether or not to store the advertisement. The information required to determine whether or not to store the advertisement could also be sent in advance, e.g., as a data service in an advertisement channel. Alternatively, the STB may store incoming advertisements in a memory temporarily and subsequently determine whether or not to retain the stored advertisements.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20060277569 to Smith published Dec. 7, 2006 entitled “DVR-based targeted advertising” discloses a system for DVR-based targeted advertising. In an embodiment, a targeted advertisement system includes a DVR, an advertisement data store, and an advertisement manager. The DVR records media content, maintains the recorded media content for on-demand viewing, and provides the recorded media content for viewing when requested. The advertisement manager designates advertisement region(s) in the recorded media content as the media content is being recorded, where an advertisement region includes a first boundary and a second boundary to designate the advertisement region in the media content. The advertisement manager monitors a first data stream of the recorded media content when it is rendered for viewing to detect that a playback position of the first data stream has crossed an advertisement region boundary, and to initiate that an advertisement obtained from the advertisement data store be provided as a second data stream to render the advertisement for viewing.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20060253864 to Easty published Nov. 9, 2006 entitled “System and method for household targeted advertising” discloses a targeted television advertisement system comprising a customer premises equipment at a household and coupled to a television set, the customer premise equipment, which comprises a server operable to access a media storage device and demand-pull advertising elementary streams customized for a viewer of the household, and a splicer operable to receive a program elementary streams and splice the demand-pulled advertising elementary streams into the program elementary streams.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 20060253328 to Kohli et al. published Nov. 9, 2006 entitled “Targeted advertising using verifiable information” discloses a system and a method to match advertisement requests with campaigns using targeting attributes, and campaigns are selected for fulfillment of the advertisement request according to a priority algorithm. The targeting uses end user information that is verifiable, and which the user has granted permission to use, improving the granularity and accuracy of the targeting data. The algorithm includes load balancing and campaign state evaluation on a per campaign, per user basis. The algorithm enables control over the frequency and number of exposures for a campaign, optimizing the advertising both from the perspective of the user and the advertiser.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 200602483555 to Eldering published Nov. 2, 2006 entitled “Targeted advertising through electronic program guide” discloses a mechanism for matching Electronic Program Guide (EPG) advertisements to subscribers or groups of subscribers and delivering those advertisements within the EPG. The subscribers are initially characterized in different groups by using commercially available data, such as demographic data. Furthermore, the groups of subscribers may be formed according to their characteristics. These characteristics may be derived from, but are not limited to, demographic data, geographic information or individual subscriber selection data. Subsequent to the formation of the groups, suitable advertisements to be placed in the EPG avails are selected, based on the matching of the advertisement characteristics to the characteristics of the groups, wherein the EPG avails are the advertising opportunities available within the EPG. Different versions of the EPG having targeted advertisements may be created, and the different versions may be placed on a download server for transmission over an access system to the subscriber. At the subscriber end, the different versions of the EPG may be received and the subscriber end, being assigned to a particular group, may receive the EPG which corresponds to that group. The subscriber end generally comprises a suitable subscriber interface, such as, a set-top box (STB) or a cable-ready television having a unique identification.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,228,555 to Schlack issued Jun. 5, 2007 entitled “System and method for delivering targeted advertisements using multiple presentation streams” discloses a system and method for delivering channels of presentation streams carrying targeted advertisements in a television service network environment. The system includes a generator for generating a set of presentation streams for each of programming channels, each of the presentation streams in each set having same programming data but different ads directed to advertiser-specific market segments of different advertisers. A plurality of local routing stations receives the generated sets of presentation streams. At least one local routing station processes the sets of presentation streams and selectively switches between the presentation streams in each set to output one presentation stream for a programming channel. As a result, a presentation stream carrying the most appropriate advertisement is provided to a viewer at any given time for at least one programming channel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,738,978 to Hendricks, et al. issued May 18, 2004, entitled “Method and apparatus for targeted advertisement” discloses a network controller for use with a digital cable headend capable of monitoring and controlling set top terminals in a television program delivery system. The invention relates to methods and apparatus for a network controller that manages a configuration of set top terminals in a program delivery system. The invention is particularly useful in program delivery systems with hundreds of channels of programming, a menu driven program selection system, and a program control information signal that carries data and identifies available program choices. Specifically, the invention modifies a program control information signal at the cable headend before the modified signal is transmitted to each set top terminal. This signal is used with polling methods to receive upstream data from the set top terminals. The invention initiates such upstream data retrieval, gathers all data received and compiles viewer demographics information and programs watched information. The invention processes this data and information to generate packages of advertisements, as well as account and billing reports, targeted towards each set top terminal. The invention uses upstream data reception hardware, databases and processing hardware and software to accomplish these functions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,551 to Swix, et al. issued Apr. 6, 2004 entitled “Method and system for providing targeted advertisements” discloses a method and system for providing targeted advertisements over a networked media delivery system, especially interactive television networks, the system comprising tracking and storing viewer selections, analyzing the selections, and delivering targeted advertisements that appeal to the particular subscriber making the selections. The system includes a merge processor, a file server, a profile processor, and a broadcast server contained in a head end in communication with a plurality of set-top boxes through a distribution network. Based on a subscriber's viewing habits and account information, the invention delivers different, customized advertisements to different viewers watching the same program or channel. The advertisements are delivered as either still frame bit maps or as video streams advertisement insertion in a playlist or a broadcast media program.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,585 to Hendricks, et al. issued Oct. 8, 2002 entitled “Targeted advertisement using television delivery systems” discloses a multiple channel architecture designed to allow targeted advertising directed to television terminals connected to an operations center or a cable headend. Program channels carry television programs. During commercial breaks in the television programs, advertisements, which are also broadcast on the program channel, are displayed. However, additional feeder channels carry alternate advertising that may be better suited for certain viewing audiences. The operations center or the cable headend generate a group assignment plan that assigns the television terminals to groups, based on factors such as area of dominant influence and household income. A switching plan is then generated that instructs the television terminals to remain with the program channel or to switch to one of the alternate feeder channels during the program breaks. The television terminals record which channels were viewed during the program breaks, and report this information to the cable headends and the operations center. The reported information is used to generate billing for commercial advertisers, and to analyze viewer watching habits. The invention uses upstream data reception hardware, databases and processing hardware and software to accomplish these functions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,002,393 also issued to Hite, et al. Dec. 14, 1999, entitled “System and method for delivering targeted advertisements to consumers using direct commands” discloses a system and method for targeting TV advertisements to individual consumers by delivering a plurality of advertisements to a display site. A command signal is sent to the display site commanding the display of a selected advertisement suited for the individual consumer. In another embodiment, a predetermined advertisement is delivered upon command from a control center to a viewing site intended for the particular consumer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,170 to Hite, et al. issued Jun. 30, 1998 entitled “System and method for delivering targeted advertisements to consumers” discloses advertising by targeting, delivering and displaying electronic advertising messages (commercials) within specified programming in one or more pre-determined households (or on specific display devices) while simultaneously preventing a commercial from being displayed in other households or on other displays for which it is not intended. Commercials are delivered to specified homes or displays via either over-the-air or wired delivery systems.
Despite the foregoing plethora of approaches to “targeted” advertising and promotions, there is a need for improved methods and apparatus which more effectively identify and access groups for content delivery over an information network. Such improved methods and apparatus would ideally identify one or more users of the delivery network based on information that will better correlate with an advertiser's target audience and demographic. Ideally, these methods and apparatus would be able to selectively utilize multiple sources of information relating to users and their behavior (thus providing even more precision when attempting to identify a designated audience) and would leverage flexible network delivery paradigms such as broadcast switched architectures.
Such methods and apparatus would also allow for decoupling of advertising or promotions from a particular program or time slot, thereby providing the network operator flexibility to insert the advertising or promotional content in a dynamic fashion based on inter alia changing network conditions, and/or cost/benefit decisions. This approach would also permit use of a new more flexible business method (pricing model) for network operators and content sources.
Subscriber anonymity or privacy (i.e., no use of personally identifiable information) would also ideally be maintained where desired.
The improved apparatus and methods should also be capable of providing complete privacy and anonymity for individual subscribers from which the “targeting” information is obtained.